greekdaph

Yale is another one that springs to mind--a department heavily associated with the New Critics that, though now interested in attracting faculty who are more into theory, still has plenty of people left who trained in and practice that methodology. Though as someone who's more interested in close reading than in theory myself, I should add that people have been telling me, over and over again, how important it is to be well-versed in theory whether you rely heavily on it or not. Many of the professors I've talked to whose close readings I really admire are also people who can have a very high level conversation about this or that theorist or theoretical approach. That's something that we as grad students will have to do, too, whether we're interested in it from the get-go or dragged into it kicking and screaming.

Sorry to be the bearer of disappointing news, but I'm guessing--just guessing--that the English department is done notifying both accepted and waitlisted students. The university is on spring break through Friday, and it seems like phone calls and e-mails went out before break began. The one waitlist notification that was done by e-mail sounds completely legit, and I think it's a program that prefers electronic initial communication to snail mail notification. Comp Lit is, institutionally, entirely independent of the English department. It would not at all surprise me if they were on different notification timelines. I wouldn't necessarily expect to hear anything this week because of the break (though some staff is still around), but maybe next week? Good luck!

I received an acceptance e-mail from UCLA (!!!) on Tuesday at around 7 p.m. ET and posted about it on the results page. The message was not personalized beyond my last name, which is at the beginning of the alphabet. I wish I had more information for you, but, alas, I don't know anything else. The message said that the cohort would be small, but it didn't give numbers, and aren't these cohorts always small? The e-mail came from members of the department, and my UCLA online decision status page was not updated as of the result by midnight on Wednesday. I just checked it now, though, and there is a decision letter available that comes from the graduate school itself. This leads me to conclude that the online application page is updated by the grad school, while the department may be on a different timeline. My guess is that there's still hope, as the cohort can't be *that* small and there are just not enough posts on the results page for it to seem like they're done. Crossing my fingers for those still waiting!

As far as finding strong faculty, brokenmoped, a few tips: -I, and I think pretty much anyone else on this board, think that fit--a match in research interests--is the best indicator of "strong" faculty, as anyone employed by a graduate program is more than likely to be a great scholar. Here are a few tips for finding faculty who are a good match: -Which scholars' work have you come across and enjoyed/been influenced by? -Look through scholarly journals for 20th century American or whatever your eventual field will be. Who wrote the articles you like best? You can also think not just in terms of subject area but in terms of methodology--even someone who studies a different area may have a theoretical approach that interests you. -Where did the professors who work in your area of interest go to school? Are they faculty they worked with still there? -Look through websites of programs you're interested in attending. Often, faculty interests will be listed there--and sometimes, faculty will even be broken down into fields. -Work your way through US News or other rankings, and see if there are faculty who match your interests at the schools they list. As you do all of this, think of sentences like, "So-and-so's interest in X is directly related to my interest in Y"; "So-and-so's work on X will help me expand my knowledge of Y"; "So-and-so's work on X will give me a new lens through which to consider Y." Statements like this will eventually become the fit paragraph of your SOP. -In addition to fit, the other question you'll have to ask yourself once you've found scholars who match your interests is whether you would actually enjoy working with them. Are they warm and friendly or cold and arrogant? But that's a harder question to answer until you've been admitted to a program and have a chance to meet/converse with them. -Superstar faculty--the big names with all the accolades--aren't always the best bet, as they may have too much else going on to be good advisors and advocates for you. (This isn't always the case, of course, but in order to woo superstar faculty, schools sometimes have to make concessions like not requiring them to teach as much, and those concessions don't always serve you well as a student. This doesn't mean that you should avoid reaching for the (super)stars, but make sure there are other people in the department you could work with in addition to them. Hope this helps! And best of luck to you! PS: Just saw a cup of coffee's reply above. Good advice there! Looking at funding and placement rates is a really good way to evaluate a program overall and is also an essential part of the process--I just focused here on how I found faculty to target.

Chapel Hill is accepting in waves and appears to have sent out no rejections yet. The earliest acceptance seems to have come about five weeks ago, the most recent within the past couple days. There were 383 applications, and I heard somewhere (this very forum, perhaps) that there will be 17 acceptances. So don't count yourself out just yet!!